#shepard meet consequence

Daniela & Garrus: The Shape of a Lie

I think I've rambled a lot about this story in my blog already. This is my first outside-Mass-Effect AU, and it's so damn fun. It's fun to flip the roles, if you will, and let Shepard be the "bad guy". That said, her cause is pretty damn just. I just haven't gotten to what she's actually doing yet. It's also incredibly fun to step out of sci-fi and make the world simpler. I think I'm a little tired of sci-fi right now, but that's to be expected after writing it for 5 years straight. 😅

Daniela & James: shepard, meet consequence

Right now it's just a 2-chapter smut story. If I ever decide to expand that to the longfic it was supposed to be, it's going to be something else entirely. This is what I'll call "soft AU". A what-if and how that'd effect everyone involved. "Science" is heavily involved, the stakes are high as fuck, and the consequences aren't as jokey as the title might suggest. I picked James because I think he's an excellent person to explore in this setting. A soft character study, I guess. And I'm being vague because I don't wanna spoil what the main consequence is--shoot me if you must.

Marika & Vitorius: Into the Abyss

I'll be honest: this has potential to be my second heart story. It's a different take on the Reapers story, it's a "within the universe" AU, but doesn't follow the canon story. I say I'm a little tired of sci-fi and then I think about this quite often. It's a Nordic-detective-noir style piece--angst, doomed love, body horror, gore, broken MCs, and "institutions are messy" included. Everything costs something as we'll see in the ending. It doesn't end on a cliffhanger, but it ends with some unanswered questions.

Marika & Garrus: Mirage

Is this really an AU? It's a post-ME3 story, so kind of. I'm going to do a couple of twists and turns that are outside the normalcy of post-ME3 stuff. I will undertag this story on purpose to not spoil the two major twists--again, shoot me if you must. One of them plays heavily with the psychology of a certain character, but in a very plausible what-if way. It's one of those stories where I'll be crystal clear: if playing with a character like that to make them a bad guy bothers you despite it literally being fiction and not real, do yourself a favor and don't read.

Bee & Cullen: ?

I'm still exploring their story in-universe and haven't even thought of bringing them outside Thedas. I guess meeting in Kirkwall and starting a messy string of hookups counts as an AU? Kind of? And I wanted this because I sat there thinking "how awkward would it be if they'd had a messy history and then met each other on the battlefield right before trying to close the Breach" and loved how it made me feel.

My favorite(s)

This is hard to answer. My favorite depends entirely on the itch it scratches.

Different-universe-altogether: The Shape of a Lie Satisfying plot twists and fucked-upness: Mirage Overall story: Into the Abyss Giddiness and malicious laughter as I mash dolls together: Bee & Cullen

Mirage and Into the Abyss are probably the two stories that I've really looked forward to the most. They're serious as hell, and I love serious shit.

Out of those two...